Caves
by ShadowKat-Shidobukatsu
Summary: Kink Meme Prompt Fill. Prompt: "Caves in the mountains are seldom unoccupied."


"Oh, come on you two! Stop being such girls," Dis scoffed at her brothers, smirking as she swept her skirts around her feet to move them out of the way as she climbed up the rock face.

"But, father told us not to climb into the higher catacombs, since they haven't been properly looked after since before Thror took the throne," Frerin pointed out, huffing at his sisters giggle at his worry.

"He's right, Dis," Thorin demanded, reaching up to try and drag his sister back down to the platform of stone they'd gotten to so far, the three having decided to explore the less traversed areas of the mountain for fun. They had gotten as far as was deemed 'safe' by most miners, and were now venturing into run down areas that had been abandoned centuries ago for being barren of gems or good ore. "We really should go back now, anyway. Father will wonder where we've been if we do not return in time for supper!"

Dis kicked her brothers hand away, scrambling further up the rocks and swinging herself up onto a higher ledge, grinning down at her fretful brothers below. "Oh, yes. Because he's always been so worried when we've been late before. Really, Thorin. He's given up on hoping for better children, you may as well give it up. Come on! There's caves up here! Who knows what was left behind in them when they abandoned this place!"

Frerin groaned as Dis' face disappeared behind the rock face, while Thorin ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Well," the younger brother said, flashing Thorin a quick smile, before grabbing onto the cliff face and beginning to haul himself up, "We might as well. She won't be coming down on her own."

Thorin threw his arms into the air, spinning in a circle while spitting a couple of curses out towards Aule for giving him such foolish siblings, before he moved to follow the other two up the cliff to the ledges above.

"Hurry up, Thorin," Dis' voice floated down from the ledge above as Frerin also disappeared over the edge to join his sister, "You have to see this!"

The eldest sibling finally drug himself over the ledge, groaning as he finally caught a glance of how high they had climbed, before he followed the excited voices of his siblings that were emanating from a cave not too far off.

"-because you know they'd re-open these caves if they knew!" Thorin frowned lightly as he approached the chattering of his brother and sister, tugging on one of Dis' braids and the beginnings of Frerin's beard when he finally caught up with them. "So, what are you two going on about?" Dis simply smirked at him as she gestured further into the cave from where the three dwarrows stood.

Thorin blinked a few times at the view his gaze settled on, eyes widening slightly. The vein the cave was dug into had obviously been cracked, letting water leak down into the caverns for decades, dragging minerals and Aule only knew what with it. Huge stalagmites and stalactites had formed throughout the cave, simply riddled with glittering fragments of crystals. The whole cave practically shimmered from the faint bit of light that managed to enter reflecting off the crystals.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Dis murmured, wandering forward to brush her fingers over a few glittering pieces of brightly coloured crystal, turning to grin at her brothers. "If Thror knew, you know he'd have the mines reopened. The men in Dale would go nuts over jewelry made with these."

Thorin had to nod at his sisters words, knowing them to be true. The men in Dale always reveled at dwarven wares, but something as colourful, yet cheap like the crystals would go over quite well. He watched absently as his younger siblings worked at pulling a few different colour crystals from the cave walls to take home to show their grandfather. He'd managed to become so distracted, he'd barely registered the faint rumblings of something moving deep within the darkness of the cave.

"Did you hear that?" Frerin asked, pocketing a brilliant blue crystal as he stepped back from the wall, glancing towards the shadowy tunnel at the back of the cave, Dis scoffing quietly.

"What? Your incessant babbling? Yes, I hear that quite well, thank you," she laughed, pausing at a louder rumble that echoed from the darkness.

"No," Frerin gulped, stepping back to stand next to Thorin, who was staring at the darkness, his fingers twitching to grab the sword he'd left in his chambers back at the palace, "I meant that."

Dis quickly scurried back to stand next to her siblings, fear making the three want to leave, but curiosity keeping them firmly planted in the cave. The rumbling came to an abrupt stop, just as the shadows of the caves seemed to shift and ripple of their own accord, something shifting in the darkness.

"What is it?" Frerin ventured to whisper, just as something as dark as pitch began to move in the darkness, a pair of hazy grey eyes peering at them from the shadows. A maw full of black teeth snapped at the air, while a monstrously clawed paw came crashing down on the cave floor, leaving great welts in their wake.

"Run!" Thorin barked, shoving his siblings ahead of him as the three of them scrambled to get out of the caves, the eldest feeling the creature behind them swipe out at them in the form of a cold gust of wind pushing at the back of his calves.

The three managed to get out of the cave and began to scramble down the cliff side before the beast let out a bellowing roar and swatted at the mouth of the cave, Thorin just glimpsing a blank grey eye peering at him from the shadows, before the entrance of the cave collapsed in on itself.

"Okay," Dis gasped, once all three of them were a safe distance from the abandoned mining areas, "I take that back. We will definitely not be telling Thror about those caves."

"Yeah, no," Frerin agreed, hand on his chest as he sucked air into his lungs like a drowning man. "But, really, what was that thing?"

Thorin swiped hair out of his face, glancing back towards where they'd run from, taking a few deep gulps of air. "That," he said, once he had caught enough of his breath, "Was a Shadowbeast. I read they went extinct after the Battle of Dagorlad. Apparently not."


End file.
